Montpelier Day 1: Tour of the North Yard

After our tour of CALM, we caravanned to the staff parking lot. We were told we were staff members for the week, and given the code to enter the site when the white gates sealed it off from the general public. Martha and I used the opportunity to visit to watch a couple of sunsets. 

Chris described the property in simple terms to help us get orientated. The Main House is in the center. To the left is the North Yard, where the Temple is located. To the Right is the South Yard, with the reconstructed slave homes.

Time for our history lesson.

In the 18th century when James Madison Sr. was in charge, the slaves were more visible. It was a sign of wealth.

By the 19th century when President James Madison Jr. was running the plantation, slaves were obscure, but not completely hidden. The blacksmith shop was moved further away.

Chris gave us a color handout which we referenced throughout the tour. On page 4 is an artist's rendering of what the plantation looked like during James Madison's Sr.'s time. The wings did not yet exist. The main house was much smaller. To this day if you look closely above the door on the left, you can see a triangle indicating that was the main doorway. There is a distinct change in the bricks, again if you look closely it is impossible to miss, but easy to overlook if you don't know what to look for. During this time the blacksmith shop and north kitchen were to the left in full view of the house.

In 1809 President Madison expanded the house and added the wings. He made sure everything was symmetrical in the picturesque landscape style with English gardens. The picturesque movement had started in England in the late 18th century. This was the era of a nostalgic return to nature. He replaced the neo-classic Georgian symmetrical style of his father with hidden symmetry. For example the line of pine trees leading to the Temple on the left were mirrored on the right with a similar row of different trees. Everything was planted with intentionality.

In the late 1920's Madison's pine trees were replaced by the DuPonts. Their stumps were blasted with dynamite, as was proved by archaeological research. In 2013 or 2014, the cedars were replaced by pine trees.

William Thornton, a leading architect of the day, advised the President when building his addition to make sure the library has a direct view of the Temple. I am thankful to Percy, one of our fellow architects for looking out the window during our tour of the house and noting the pine trees obscure the view of the Temple.

The Marquis de Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson were frequent guests at Montpelier, often debating the ethics of slavery. They brought different worldviews, but eventually came to the same viewpoint.

Jefferson did not feel emancipation would work because they were savages (his word, not mine). He opposed emancipation for clearly racist reasons.

Madison was also against emancipation because the felt white people were too racist and would never accept Black people as equals.

Lafayette, the sole Frenchman in the discussion, believed they should be free.

Montpelier was built on a hill facing mountains.

So far the excavation has found lots of material. There is surface trash from the kitchen, including tavern ware such as mixing bowls, and things needed for cooking, plus bones.

Closer to the Temple, there was a lot of slag, which reflects the activities of the 18th century.

In the 19th century pine allee there have not been a lot of artifacts. In the "lawn spaces" they found silver thimbles and a spool of thread with a makers' mark, indicating elite hobbies took place in this space.

Directly beneath the Temple is a 24-foot deep ice house. We were invited inside of it later in the week. The Temple is thought of as Madison's summer study as it would have been the coolest place that time of year, however there are no writings from Madison to prove that theory. Having twisted my ankle the night before, I only went down about eight feet, took this picture of my friends, and climbed back up. No reason to push my luck.

In Madison's time, this space would have been crammed full of ice each winter, enough ice to last until the following winter. The entrance to the ice house is on the side where we were digging, as opposed to the hatch we used to climb into it. 

Inside the ice house is a platform about four feet down. It was likely used to store food, especially meats, to keep them preserved.

Not many pieces of ceramic were found here, though one piece of American stoneware was located in the area where the pine trees had been. There is a portrait of a woman carrying a stone jar. At that time, the kitchen was on the other side of the house. Archaeologists look for patterns. Why was this piece of the pot here, so far away from the kitchen? Did the pot break and pieces were buried throughout the plantation to avoid detection? Is that where it broke? Archaeologists use a combination of imagination plus science to find answers.

I noted one of the columns was stripped of paint and asked about it. Chris answered in 2016 while conducting restoration work one column had the DuPont-era plaster stripped to the original brick. They left it that way as a teaching tool. The bricks were custom molded, hidden under the layer of historic plaster. The DuPonts also added a concrete floor over a wooden floor with copper flashing painted red. That will be harder to refurbish. 

Further away is a pond that was dug out by enslaved. The current shape is not historically accurate as it was modified in the 1990s. The pond was dredged in the 1990s, but they did not look for artifacts. A lost opportunity. 

Children were sent to harvest the ice because they are smaller than adults and less likely to break through. Many people were involved with ice harvesting, to the extent that they rented enslaved from nearby plantations to help with the work. It was done in the dark when it was colder out. 

In 1908, the area where we were digging was identified as an "old road," one that
had been rerouted in the 1850s or the 1840s. A month ago they discovered wagon ruts in the ground. Nearly 200 years later, it is possible to see the path used to bring items to the Temple, then head to the road. It is amazing the ground is able to retain changes such as that and post holes for centuries.

In the 18th and early 19th century this area was filled with top soil. It was later paved, and the area was filled with slag. Slag helped the area retain its shape.

The owners took credit for the engineering feats, while the enslaved did the work, and likely understood the engineering better than the slave masters. A trend that continues today in the workforce. 

In the 1990s, while installing a French drain, this area was identified as the North Yard blacksmith shop when they found slag dumped into a ravine gully. This was disproved this digging season. They now think the slag was dumped to create a road, with one layer filling tree holes.

Further away from the Temple and the units is a field marked with flags for metal detecting. A grid was marked out with blue flags every ten foot. Red flags indicate zero to three samples found, mapped, and quantified. Many 18th century wrought nails have been found. As Chris was talking, Dennis walked over showing us the perfect pewter button he just found. He said that is rare as pewter buttons tend to disintegrate. Dennis is clearly passionate about his job, as are all of the archaeologists. Their work is deepening the story of the site.

Throughout the area were STPs that are one foot across. STP=Shovel Test Pit. Martha and I have done some at Newlin Grist Mill. We were hoping to do more that week. The STPs have uncovered metal, ceramic, and brick, as well as brick and slag filling in tree roots.

Through archaeology they have discovered the 1809 blacksmith shop. They hope to also find the original one. Moses, the blacksmith, left behind a ledger book identifying what he sold during the war years, from 1776 to 1784. The University of Virginia has been studying these books. They had customers from all over the state. Moses was quite talented. Even plantations with their own blacksmith still purchased items from him. He made and fixed items used during the Revolutionary War, including repaired flint locks on guns. Gunsmithing was a specialized field, as was farrier (making horseshoes), but sometimes blacksmiths were called in to make repairs.

One thing I remember from a lunchtime lesson is that during the war sometimes payments were made in items for the troops, such as socks, as opposed to in cash. 

During the 1760s and 1770s as iron was harder to come by, steel edges were added to tools. Madison Sr. often took risks with Moses making things, but others bought them as evidence of economic rebellion.

The Temple symbolism dates back to France and Germany in the 18th century. President Madison never said why he wanted to build one, other than it was in vogue.

Liberty was a big topic of discussion amongst Madison and his friends. Lady Liberty was an iconic symbol of the day, right up until the Civil War era when she disappeared from most images. It was reported that the top of the temple had a statue of Lady Liberty, but that has not been proven using archaeological research, including there is no indication of a change in paint at the top of the temple where a statue would have been attached. 

Chris handed us off to Korie for a brief site orientation and site safety discussion before breaking for lunch. As she gave her talk I had flashbacks to the ones received at Red Bank that include the "Jacquie and Dan" sections about standing too close to the edge and not taking pictures. The "Dan" section was omitted, and we were encouraged to take and share pictures. They heavily photographed us and will share the images via Flickr.